The Military Diet - Lose 10 Pounds in 3 Days?

TEN-HUT!
Alright you sorry sack of maggots, your days of slovenly living are at an end. It's time to shape up or you'll be shipped out, and that begins with what you cram in that pie hole of yours each and everyday!
Related - Military Muscle: Are You in Fighting Shape?
If you haven't noticed, there's a bit of a military theme going on. That's because today, we're delving into one of the newest fad diets to hit the scene - The Military Diet.
We've got all the info you need on this extreme 3-day weight loss diet guaranteed to help you shed fat fast.

What is the Military Diet?

One thing to note before going any further is that the Military Diet is in no way, shape, or form associated or used by any branch of the Armed Forces.
Also known as the 3-day Diet, the Military Diet is yet another fad diet that has sprung up recently with the promise of dropping 10 pounds in only three days time by following the regimented eating plan.
To say that the diet is "sparse" in its dining options and portions would be generous. Each day on the Military Diet, you'll be following a very strict, low-calorie diet with set foods to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and NO snacks. You read that right, no snacks - this is the military diet after all, there's no wiggle room for personal preferences or enjoyment.

The 3-Day Diet

So, what do you get to eat on the 3 days of the Military Diet. Here you go:
Day 1

Beverages

The Military Diet recommends that you drink primarily water, and as much as you can (to help fill you up). Additionally, you are also allowed to drink as much caffeine-free herbal tea as you want, provided you only sweeten it with Stevia.
One "bright spot" of the Military Diet is that you can drink black coffee, and as much as you want. The catch is that since black coffee has roughly 5 calories, you have to "cut out the equivalent calories elsewhere", and can only sweeten with stevia, no cream or sugar.

After the 3 Days

After you've completed your three days on the diet, you're encouraged to "normal" 1500 calorie diet for 4 days. Then, if you'd still like to continue losing weight, hop back on the Military Diet for another 3 days, followed by a 4 day break, and repeat until you've hit your desired weight.

The Truth About the Military Diet

In reality, there's nothing terribly new or groundbreaking about the Military Diet. It's just another variation on the same theme of the "eat x foods if you want to lose weight fast" diet theme. Like every other extreme diet claiming to help you drop fat fast, the Military Diet is extremely basic, boring, and overly restrictive on calories, to a fault.
The truth is that with this type of low calorie, low carbohydrate diet you're essentially losing nothing but water weight, and possibly some muscle too! Furthermore, totaling up the calories, you're consuming 1400 calories at most each day on the diet, and for most men, that's ridiculously low (not to mention the drastically low protein macros which will cause muscle loss).
On such a reduced caloric intake, you'll be tired, cranky, irritably, and have difficulty concentrating. Plus, you won't have the energy (or motivation) to exercise, which is a key component to any healthy, sustainable weight loss diet. Never mind the fact that for three days time you'll feel famished...
Authors of the diet also contend that the diet "kickstarts your metabolism" since you can drink coffee, which enhances your metabolic rate. While caffeine may give a slight boost in energy expenditure, people who have been drinking coffee their whole lives have become tolerant to its effects, and the metabolic rate increase is negligible.
Add to that the fact that the diet creators expect you to subtract out 5 calories worth of food from your day if you have a single cup is beyond ridiculous. What, are you supposed to eat 4.5 saltines instead of 5 whole saltines?!
Another of the central claims of the diet is that the foods are arranged at each meal to encourage fat burning. There is absolutely no science behind these claims, and your body will burn stored fat based of the fact that you're incorporating such a drastic caloric deficit each day (up to a 1500 calorie deficit for some people).
Realistically speaking, you'd be better off focusing on eating filling, low calorie foods like fruits and vegetables which have fiber, water, and a truckload of micronutrients your body needs on a daily basis.
Start to really look at what these fad diets are preaching, and you begin to see just how impractical they are. That's the problem with all fad diets, they all make you believe you need to do outrageous things to lose weight.
In reality, if you employ a moderate energy deficit and exercise a decent amount, the weight will start to fall off. But, that's not sexy enough to become a bestseller, so people come up with all sorts of ridiculous antics, names, and eating protocols to gain notoriety and get published.
Fad diets may give a modicum of short term weight loss, but the diets and results are unsustainable for the long term. Instead of teaching people how to eat properly and exercise, these diets recommend overly complicate things and lead you to believe that the only way to true weight loss is to follow their asinine diet.
Like all fad diets, the Military Diet works because it's essentially a starvation diet that can't be followed for the rest of your life. It won't lead to healthy or sustainable weight loss and doesn't empower you with the tools required to truly understand what healthy, long term fat loss is all about.
Hopefully your "BS monitor" went off a LONG time ago and realized this Military Diet is a complete scam and farce. It is not an effective, healthy, or sustainable method to lose weight, and deserves a place amongst all the other terrible fad diets, in the dumpster.
If you want to truly understand how to lose weight and build muscle, check out any of our complete workout and nutrition programs here on TigerFitness.

* Tiger Fitness does not imply any medical advice in this article. There are no guarantees of specific results and results may vary. Please consult your family Dr. before starting any diet or training program.